A Vaughan grandfather considered by police to be an associate of alleged Montreal Mafia kingpin Vito Rizzuto remains in custody after losing a marathon detention review.

Carmelo Bruzzese, 64, remains behind bars at the Maplehurst Detention Centre after an immigration officer ruled Friday that he is a danger to the public and a flight risk.

Bruzzese has been in custody since he was arrested in August by the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency on an immigration warrant. He has permanent resident status in Canada, where he has lived on and off since the early 1960s, but remains an Italian citizen.

No date has been announced for his admissibility hearing. He’s wanted in Italy on Mafia-association charges, an offence that doesn’t exist in Canada.

Bruzzese, whose wife and sons are Canadian citizens, was acquitted of a Mafia-related offence in Italy in 2008 related to his association with Rizzuto. Bruzzese has no record of criminal conviction in Canada or Italy.

The government has argued that he holds the high-level rank of “padrino” in the ‘Ndrangeheta. The hearing heard that the ‘Ndrangheta is one of the world’s most dangerous crime groups, dominating drug trafficking and money laundering activities in several countries.

The hearing was told the ‘Ndrangheta is particularly active in Europe, several South American countries, Australia, the United States and Canada.

Bruzzese’s detention review before Iris Kohler began in August and continued intermittently until Friday, when he was deemed a danger to flee.

Detention reviews often last just a half-hour.

The hearing officer ruled on Friday that a GPS monitoring device might address flight concerns, but it doesn’t address fears that he’s a danger to society.

The board heard that he lives well, despite having no full-time employment. He drives a BMW that is not his own and told the hearing he couldn’t state the name of the car owner because it’s Iraqi and difficult to remember.

Bruzzese also told the hearing he receives medical prescriptions from the health plan of an acquaintance.

Kohler concluded Bruzzese had the appearance of “someone living in the shadows of regular society.”

The hearing also heard that owns a villa in Calabria, Italy, and recently purchased a $600,000 house with his son Carlo, who was convicted in Italy on Mafia-related charges.

He was arrested Aug. 23 “on grounds of organized criminality” after the CBSA concluded he is inadmissible to Canada due to his membership in a Mafia-style criminal organization called the ‘Ndrangheta.

His son-in-law is former York Region resident Antonio Coluccio, who was deported to Italy in 2010 because of connections to organized-crime figures.

Coluccio’s brothers Giuseppe and Salvatore are in custody in Italy on international drug-trafficking charges.

Giuseppe and Salvatore Coluccio were York Region residents in the mid-2000s.

Bruzzese was secretly filmed by Italian police in 2009 at a coin laundry in Siderno, Italy, talking with Giuseppe (Il Mastro) Commisso, who has since been sentenced to 14 years and eight months in prison on various organized-crime charges.

Bruzzese’s voice was also secretly recorded in conversation with Vito Rizzuto of Montreal, who returned to Canada last October after serving more than five years in a U.S. prison for his role in three gangland slayings in a Brooklyn social club.

In his detention review, Bruzzese tried to downplay accusations by authorities that he had a “sophisticated” secret bunker in his coastal Italian villa.

He attempted to portray it as a storage space for valuables, like wine, money and legal firearms.